Return of the Microducks
by SharanMcQuack
Summary: The Microducks contact Mr. McDuck with a crisis: a space cloud has passed over their planetoid, poisoning the soil and killing their plants. They'll starve if they don't run out of breathable air first. The ducktales ducks go to help. Flinty goes to make trouble.


Return of the Microducks

by Sharan McQuack, Launchpad's wife.

One day, DASA received a message from the Microducks, which they forwarded to Mr. McDuck.

It seems a space cloud had past over their planetiod, poisoning most of it's plant life. Little green was left and they would all soon starve to death, if they did not run out of breathable air first. Could we send help?

So, Mr. McDuck, Launchpad, me and the kids (HDL+ Webby) headed to the planet of the Microducks, with tools, seeds and food.

Soon, we arrived.

"I'm afraid seeds won't help. The soil has been poisoned. Nothing grows. Only plants in greenhouses are left. If we don't run out oxygen, we'll starve!" head Microduck lamented. "We still have seeds. If only we had good soil in which to plant them!"

Then, Webby noticed something.

"There are plants growing under the houses." Webby said.

We peeked under the houses, and by gum, there were plants growing under them!

The space cloud only poisoned open land, not land with houses on them. Not land the space cloud had not touched.

We helped the Microducks raze abandoned houses and plant seeds where those houses had been. The seeds grew.

We helped the Microducks to move their houses to rocky ground. We planted seeds where the houses had been and they grew, too.

MEANWHILE, Flinty had followed us. But the Microducks live on a small asteroid (that's why they are so small. Their home is a small asteroid.) there was no place for Flinty to land his skyclipper, Sulfur without being seen and noticed. So Flinty landed on a nearby planet.

The inhabitants of this planet talked to him. Flinty told them about the troubles the Microducks were having.

They told him they wanted the Microducks poisoned soil.

"We don't like them. We can use it to kill them, once and for all. Get that soil and we will pay you well." these aliens said.

MEANWHILE, we were helping the Microducks move rocks so they could plant seeds where the rocks had been. These seeds grew, too.

We dug up the poisoned soil and piled it up. We planted seeds where that soil had been and they grew.

But we didn't know what to do with the poisoned soil. The next time it rained, the poison in it might leach out and poison the good soil we had found.

Since there was no sign of rain, we decided to do what we could and worry about the poisoned soil later. We planted mushrooms in small caves and put lights in bigger caves and planted seeds which grew, too.

But while we were busy doing all this, Flinty arrived and he and some hired Beagles started stealing the poisoned soil. Somehow the Microducks didn't object. It 's not like they WANTED the poisoned soil. If somebody wanted to steal their garbage, solving the problem of what to do with it, they saw no reason to interfere.

However, we got back in time to see FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD AND THE BEAGLES loading the poisoned soil on board a skyclipper. We somehow figured they were up to no good. We knew how deadly that poisoned soil was. Flintheart could kill a lot of innocent people with it. He could sell it to others who could kill with it.

"We have to stop them! Lord knows what they will do with that poisoned soil. And I wouldn't put it past Flinty to have been behide that "space cloud" in the first place!" Mr. McDuck ordered.

Since I wouldn't put it past Flinty to use it to kill plants on Earth so he could sell food to starving people, I came along to help. Launchpad was well ahead of me. Launchpad comes as close to hating Flinty's guts as Launchpad is capable of doing so.

Flinty managed to take off before we could stop them.

"Flinty's getting away!" screamed Mr. McDuck.

"Relax, Mr. McDee, he won't get far. Besides, so far, he's doing us a favor. He's removing poisoned soil before the poison can leach out and hurt anything else." Launchpad replied.

Launchpad readied the skyclipper Steam and we followed Flinty.

"Can't you fire at him?" Mr. McDuck asked.

"With what? I'm NOT a military pilot. It's illegal for me to arm my planes. So for course, I don't have any weapons aboard this….right?" Launchpad replied. "The sonic digger isn't a weapon, now is it?"

And Launchpad pressed a button, revealing the sonic digger from "Top Duck" (1). And aimed it, not at Flinty's skyclipper but at some nearby meteorites. The meteorites fell apart, and particles from the meteorites bombed Flinty's skyclipper.

"Hey Flinty! How do you like this turbulence? If you don't want more, drop that poisoned soil." Launchpad said to Flinty via the radio.

Flinty's skyclipper Sulfur had weapons out the wahoo despite the fact Butch Beagle ain't a military pilot, neither. Big surprise. Flinty let his weapons do the talking. Butch fired at us, but Launchpad kept dodging behide meteorites so all Butch accomplished was break up the meteorites so they bombarded Sulfur further.

"Hey, Mr. McDee, Butch keeps trying to ditch us. But he ISN'T heading for EARTH. You want I should pretend to be fooled and find out where he's going?" Launchpad asked.

"Hmm. It certainly wouldn't be difficult for you to pretend to be a fool. And I am curious what Flinty is going to do with that poisoned soil if he's not heading for Earth. If there are other aliens around here, they might be an untapped market." Mr. McDuck mused. "Fine. Just be sure Flinty doesn't really "lose" you."

So Launchpad allowed Butch to think he had succeeded in giving Launchpad the slip. But Launchpad followed Butch on the sly until Butch landed on a nearby planet. The locals quickly showed up to greet Flinty.

Launchpad landed the skyclipper "Steam". Mr. McDuck went running down the gangplank as soon as he could.

"Stop! Don't deal with that man! He's a crook and that soil is poisonous!" Mr. McDuck screamed.

"Too late, McDuck. I've already made a deal with these aliens to sell them this soil. They know it's poison and are going to use it to kill those Microducks of yours." Flinty gloated.

"Is that true? Why do you want to kill them?" Mr. McDuck demanded.

"No, it's NOT true. We have no malice against the Microducks." Head Alien replied." But we could tell this man is evil and would only sell us the poisoned soil if we lied to him and told him we were going to put it to evil use, to kill them."

"What? You lied to me? How dare you?" yelled Flinty.

Ain't it wild how indigent dishonest people get when honest people lie to them?

"We needed that poison. We had no way of getting it, we have no space travel. We can talk to the Microducks via radio but we can't get there." head alien explained.

"What do you need the poison for, then?" Mr. McDuck asked.

"We are moving plants. We think, we talk, we breath in carbon dioxide and breath out oxygen. But lately non-sentient plants have started to grow on our planet. There isn't enough carbon dioxide for us and them. We have to kill them before we run out of breathable air." Head plantalien explained.

"Hey, Mr. McDee- they have the same problem as the Microducks. Only backwards. Maybe the Microducks can eat some of their plants? Maybe they can buy them?" Launchpad suggested.

"Hmm. How's about I speak to the Microducks about this? They will, I believe, at least buy the good soil these plants grow on. And they may buy the plants themselves. That way you can make a profit from them rather than just killing them." Mr. McDuck offered.

"Most of our planet is just rock. These plants only grow on the little soil there is. You can buy it with our blessings, then these plants will have nowhere to grow." Head plantalien replied.

"Hey! What about my poisoned soil that you promised to pay for?" Flinty objected.

"And we will pay for it, as we promised. What we do with it is none of your business." Head plantalien replied.

Flinty didn't like it, but there wasn't much he could do to prevent it with witnesses there. So he took the gold he had been promised and left.

Mr. McDuck contacted the Microducks, and explained the situation to them. We brought them samples of the plants and the good soil. The Microducks were delighted to buy the good soil and use it to replace the poisoned soil. Some of the plants proven delicious to them and were purchased, too.

The plantaliens did use the poisoned soil to kill some plants (the local equivalent of poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac) that grew even on rocks and were royal nuisances. They bought skyclippers so they could transport plants and soil to the Microducks.

And Mr. McDuck made lovely profits arranging all this.

THE END.

(1) Actually a new improved version, even stronger than the original. Can effect stuff from a LOT farther.


End file.
